pediatrician for sale

"Don't make me angry. You won't like me when I'm angry." -David Banner.

There comes a day in all awesome parents lives when they have to see their little one sustain an injury. My baby is slowing learning to walk and stand so I suspect that I'll see a few bumps and bonks in the next few months. He's so curious. Reaching for big books on coffee tables. Yanking on anything cord-like he can grab. I can put up all of the baby gates for sale on Ebay, but the truth is, babies are quick!
Little did I know that Joaquin's first injury would be compliments of the one who claims to lead our "wellness visits." Dr. Bill, (not his real name) has never really impressed me. He forgets that we don't eat animal products almost every visit (we've quit reminding him and just say mmmmm, ooohhhh, when he suggests cottage cheese, again). He repeats himself. He has a special way of making one feel like they are just a number, just a paycheck, and the more appointments he can fly through in a day, the better. Exactly the opposite of what I want for my baby.
After our 9 month visit, my husband turned to me and said, "so, you think we've outgrown Dr. Bill?"
"Yep," I said "we've heard the same spiel about 4 times."
So, we knew that we needed to find a new pediatrician. But time flies and we found ourselves at the 1 year visit, bracing for another round of immunizations that I continue to try to get comfortable with (another blog post, maybe). We were shown to our examination room, undressed the babe down to cloth diaper and let him stand on the table while holding our hands for stability. Dr. Bill walked in and Joaquin got suspicious. The doctor gave him a couple of tongue depressors and a tape measure to check out. Joaquin gave him the "I play with Lego's and puppets" look. The doctor measured his length and squeezed his belly. Joaquin cried out. Dr. Bill asked if he was trying to walk yet.
"Yes!" We both said, "if you hold his hands, he'll walk across the floor."
"Good" said Dr. Bill.
He placed Joaquin on the scale and weighed him. Then, in one quick move he picked him up, stood him up on the floor, and immediately let go. We watched Joaquin stand on his own for about 3 seconds and then tip forward and faceplant, hands by his sides on the carpet. You could see his little face slide forward as his body came crashing down. Ouch. The doctor, while in the best position to grab him as he went down, just watched. Joaquin gasped then howled. Dad snatched him up.
I thought, what the heck? I was stunned. I was sickened. I grabbed at my screaming baby and immediately noticed the red peeling, rug-burned skin.
"He's got a rug burn." I said.
"Let me see his face," said Dr. Bill. "Awww, buddy, you're okay."
He went on to say how nice and tall he is, usually they fall on their butts, he's got a different center of gravity because of his height.
Oh yeah, never mind that I never said he could stand on his own, nor did you ask or warn us that you were about to let him free fall. Jerk.
He said that he looked great developmentally, talked a little about the vaccines to be administered and wished us a nice summer.
"Absolutely." I squeaked out.
After the appointment we went outside and Joaquin immediately began to settle down.
"We're done with that guy," I said to my husband.
Then he said that Joaquin's eye looked weird. So now we have an otherwise perfect baby with a scratched up face and an eye injury. So much for wellness.

I went to work later that day and had the faceplant on replay all night long. Only now there were about 10 different endings to choose from. The one where I yell "why did you do that?" and one where I snatch up my baby and storm off, never to return. And of course, one where my husband knocks him out cold. I was stressed.
Late that night I came home to a sparkling clean house and a husband saying "I feel very strongly that we should never go to Dr. Bill again."
"Me too."
My husband had spent the night on replay as well. He googled just about everything you could google on eye scratches and called one of the doctors in the family. He decides that Joaquin needs to see an Opthamologist. The more we talk, the worse I feel. I decide to go right to bed so I can snuggle up with my son.
On the way to the pediatric opthomologist's office, I do something I should have done over a year ago. I take the business card out of my wallet for a nurse practitioner who doubles as a naturopath and has an office in Indianapolis. She was highly recommended by a friend and I really wanted to check it out. I make the call and say that we have a one year old and we would like to take him in for his wellness visits. The woman on the phone tells me that they don't give shots, but have a family practice. She tells me that Joaquin can see the nurse at The Complimentary Medicine Center and get his immunizations at the health dept. for free. We make our first appointment.
Which brings me to this. Why have a pediatrician anyway? All mine does is measure, weigh, and poke. His office hasn't been all together helpful when I've had an urgent question, and vaccines are FREE? I have insurance and only make a small co-pay, but the bill for each visit at Dr. Bill's office is over 500 dollars every time.
At the eye doctor we find out the the baby's eye is healing fine on it's own. As we drive Joaquin home he babbles and laughs and enjoys his new front facing carseat position. He's good. We're good.
Dr. Bill, you're fired.

the open air cafe

I love to walk. I especially love to walk to a coffee shop, with Joaquin. Having a destination gives me more spring in my step. If I am left to wander, I wander slowly. I have a total cafe crush on the Monon Coffee Co. in Broad Ripple. They have locally roasted coffee, fresh juice from a juicer and smoothies. They even have a few vegan treats like carrot cake and cookies.
I dream of a coffee shop where all of the goodies are animal and cane sugar free, but it just doesn't exist in Indy yet. I've come up with these muffins to fill in the blank. They travel well, aren't too sweet and are soft and cake like.
Carrot date muffins
1 cup of whole white wheat flour
1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
1/3 cup agave nectar (dark)
1 cup unsweetend soymilk
1 tsp vanilla
4 chopped pitted medjool dates
1 shredded carrot
Preheat to 400.
combine all of your dry indgredients in one bowl and the wet in another. combine the two and add the carrot and the dates. spoon into an oiled muffin tin. this recipe makes nine muffins. fill the empty ones with water for nice soft muffins. bake for 20-25 minutes. remove them from the pan and let them completely cool before eating as those dates can be hot hot hot!

Throw a couple of these in your backpack and when you get your coffee you can sit outside and enjoy a veg-friendly treat too!

I am slowly introducing grains into my babies diet. Wheat is kind of a big question mark as far as allergies go. I seem to feel a bit better when I cut back on it. I almost made these with Bob's Red Mill all purpose Gluten free mix. So far, I haven't noticed any problems like the tell-tale ring around the booty. We shall see.

Back at home we are still working on our fork skills and soaking up this outstanding Spring weather. Joaquin is eating up his veggies and enjoying a few new foods. I've started including some baby friendly crunchy snacks with his lunch. He loves Veggie Sticks. We call them fa fies. That's silly baby speak for french fries. Joaquin is enjoying green beans, half of a muffin with home made pumpkin seed/almond/cashew/macadamia nut butter (thinned a little), fa fies, and scrambled tofu with nutritional yeast. Guess what he went for first? He's no dummy.

Joaquin, walking

Well, not exactly, but close. He loves it when I take both of his hands and let him step around the house, stopping to look at pictures of cats, grab at glasses of water, and look at his reflection in the brass fireplace enclosure. All I have to do is say "up" and he reaches out to grab my fingers and stand up proud.
But I have a secret.
Joaquin has yet to crawl. I'll be darned if he's not just going to skip it all together.
Right around when he turned 8 months I started looking for signs of mobility. Surely he was tiring of just sitting on the floor and playing with rattles and blocks. He smiled, he laughed, he started responding to his name, and he was completely content sitting on the floor with mom.
I started googleing "how to get your baby to crawl" and "how old are babies when they crawl" and it wasn't long before "why won't my baby crawl" and "what if my baby never crawls???"
The answer to all of these is, in my opinion, is another question. "Who cares?"
But I didn't get here on my own. Late one night I confessed to my girlfriend back home that I constantly question what I'm doing with Joaquin.
"What?" She said, "you seem perfect!"
Ahhh, the magic of the blog. It's easy to be blog-perfect, I told her. Then I disclosed that my baby is 11 months and still doesn't crawl and she said, "Who cares! Crawling is overrated! Wriggling around on the ground all dirty? I never crawled." I love her.
A phone call to my mom revealed that I never crawled either. And my Dad never crawled. And my sister did some sort of butt shuffle, but technically, she never crawled. There's a whole lot of not crawling going on and I'm here to say that it's O.K.

I have my own ideas about why he doesn't crawl and why most babies do. I haven't exactly been raising Joaquin the ways they recommend in the pediatricians office. He doesn't sleep in a crib like most babies. I carry him, a lot. I never bought a walking/ rolling play station or a little seat to help him sit. I don't let him cry it out, ever. So if I do things differently, won't he do things a little differently?
The coolest point I came across while googleing comes from Dr. Greene's website. He says that milestones are really just stereotypes. Bravo, Dr. Greene, as I am not a fan of stereotypes.
What is important is that he is an excited little boy who loves to move and dance and try to say new words beginning with the letter B. At least I don't have to worry about him crawling into goose poop.

the sun is the bomb

When I bought cloth diapers last year, the mantra of the diaper peddlers seemed to be "don't use bleach, don't use bleach."
It was suggested that plenty of rinsing and use of vinegar would keep my baby smelling sweet. After Joaquin was born, my husband hung a clothesline for me and I let his diapers dry in the sun. He didn't get diaper rash and he always smelled perfect. When winter approached, the line came down and I had to throw those diaps in the dryer. I think it was probably five washes before "Peeee-U!"
My boy's butt smelled like a sewer after about an hour of wear. I started running three or four washing cycles on every batch of diapers and they STILL STUNK. I finally read through the bum genius website and they actually recommend using small amounts of bleach when needed. I started to use a cap full every other wash and they smelled much better. I looked forward to the return of the clothesline.
Did you know that the sun is an awesome natural stain fighter and disinfectant? How did I live 30+ years and not know that? Not only does the sun leave our cloth diapers smelling absolutely fresh, it bleaches them out to their whitest white! This is one of those simple things that leaves me believing that there is an order to everything and life is awesome.
I'm kind of a dork.The return of the sun and the clothesline. I love you April.

Days in the sun mean days at the park. Indy has some awesome parks. We met our friends, Jess and Millie, for some squirrel chasing at Holliday Park. This is one of my all-time favorite city spots. In fact, my first visit to this park marks a turning point where I decided that living in Indiana is awesome and I'll never dis' it again. Hey, that's me!


This is a statue at the park. I snapped this photo with my iphone using the hipstamatic app. I love this app! It gives your shots a neat old school look, totally worth a dollar ninety-nine.

Here at home our trees are blossoming, my little pots of veggie seeds are sprouting, and our cats are spending the evenings terrorizing the neighborhood. I love Indy in the springtime.

dinner of the future!!!

Dinner has become a simple affair around here. I just don't want to be super full as I wind down and make plans for the next day. For the last few weeks I have been making one simple food each night and that's it. For many of these evenings, it's sweet potato fries.
Now, I've had plenty of sweet potato fries in my day, but I really have to hand it to my friend, Jess, for pointing out what a cool meal they make for mom and baby. She offered Joaquin and I some fries for lunch one afternoon and I have been running with it ever since.
To make fries take 2 or 3 sweet potatoes depending on size. Preheat the oven to 375. Peel and cut in half lengthwise. Slice each half into planks and then your planks into fries. You don't want to make these too thin or they will burn. Toss your raw fries in olive or grapeseed oil and spread them on two baking sheets. Add salt if you want, or any spices really. Bake for 20 minutes, turn them over and bake for 10 minutes more. So good.
I often wonder if Joaquin is eating by shape and texture over taste. For example, he will eat green beans, sweet potato fries and asparagus anytime of the day right now. About two months ago he liked anything in a cube, like bread squares with flax oil and cut up pear. I know that sweet potato fries won't be a complete dinner forever. He still breastfeeds through most of the night, so a huge dinner isn't crucial. I do have some big plans though.

I have started seeds for broccoli, kale, pickling cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. In the next couple of weeks we will be planting seeds for squash, more kale, and lettuce right into the garden. I have high hopes for harvest this year. I started my seeds in some handmade newspaper cups. I really like this idea because it's a great way to reuse paper and you can put the whole thing in the ground, paper and all. I might not do that though. I've read that the paper takes awhile to break down sometimes and inhibits root growth. I'll probably remove the newspaper, add it to the compost, and put the plant in without it. You can see how to make paper cups here, here, and here. I love making the pots. We don't get the newspaper so I took mine from a paper bin near my house. It's fun to read some of the articles as I turn them into pots. I can't help but think, healthcare, smealthcare, eat more kale.